May 23, 2008

Marc PoKempner is an independent photojournalist interested in social issues whose books include Harold! Photographs from the Harold Washington Years (Northwestern University Press, 2007), and Down at Theresa's - Chicago Blues (Prestel, Munich 2000).

Bob Riesman's biography of Big Bill Broonzy, I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy, is under advance contract with the University of Chicago Press. He produced and co-wrote the documentary American Roots Music: Chicago, which was broadcast on WTTW-Channel 11 in Chicago.

Steve Balkin is Profesor of Economics at Roosevelt University.

Octogenarian Frank Scott Jr., one of the last of the Maxwell Street bluesmen, is an accomplished folk artist who also plays his blues percussive house keys and tambourine.

Carolyn Alexander, a Chicago resident, is an amateur videographer who has chronicled the “blues life” in Chicago from clubs to house parties to Maxwell Street.

Suzanne Flandreau is the Head Librarian and Archivist at the Center for Black Music Research. She previously headed the Blues Archives at the University of Mississippi.